At Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center; (212) 362-6000. Season runs through July 6.

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A dancer’s career, even a great and beloved dancer, is at best a brief candle.

At the Metropolitan Opera House Monday night, ballerina Susan Jaffe said farewell to the ballet stage amid the company that has nurtured her for her entire career, American Ballet Theater.

She joined ABT 2, the farm team, 22 years ago, and was taken into the main company two years later, the protégé of the company’s then director, Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Jaffe, who turned 40 last month, has danced as guest star with companies all over the world, but has her whole career been remarkably loyal and unwavering to ABT.

Her final performance was as the wronged and tragic heroine in “Giselle,” partnered by an immaculate and loving Jose Manuel Carreno, with two of the company’s other star males, Julio Bocca and Angel Corella, making token homage appearances in smaller roles.

What Jaffe’s performance revealed – as have her performances all this season from the ballerina roles in “Onegin” and “The Merry Widow” onward – was that she was retiring far too early, with her style, clarity and technique undimmed.

Still, it’s probably better to go far too early than even a little too late.

The performance was greeted by 25 minutes of curtain calls and ovations, bouquets, a seemingly never-ending shower of flowers, and a parade of her male partners, present and a few past, ending with director Kevin McKenzie, all with hugs, flowers and kisses.

Jaffe in turn brought out her own dancing coach, the 69-year-old Irina Kolpakova, ABT’s ballet mistress and once-great Russian ballerina. Thus are dance traditions handed down like laurels.